Nope. I can't stand their so-called "tracker software" when they're snooping what you're doing on your screen, etc. So, I started by asking my existing network for referrals. Later, I had some success with clients contacting me via LinkedIn, but referrals work much better, obviously.

You have the upper hand here over me if you're in the U.S. I bet many of your colleagues/past colleagues, maybe even your friends can provide potential referrals if you ask. I was experiencing troubles when I first started doing programming and consulting because English is not my native language (I can write, but I sometimes stutter and slow down when I speak.), and because I live in Russia and it's a major no-no for a client in half of the cases (stereotypes never die).

But I methodically grew my network, and things started to get much better.

Thank you for sharing. We mostly do fixed price contracts, but I am aware that the hourly logging software is annoying!